Yateley CC U13 Girls versus Hartley Wintney U13 Girls Hurricanes

On a Saturday morning which managed to be both sunny, rainy, hot and cloudy all in one go, the top-of-the-league HWCC Hurricanes made their way to Yateley for a very early 8:30am meet-up. Sourcing eight players had been a problem all week, with multiple last minute casualties to the dreaded lurgies, but after some last minute magic by Nadine a team of Daphne, Lauren (captain), Liv, Honor, Darcey and Daisy were joined by two girls from the U11 squad: Florence Markham and Isabelle Coe. And let's say it right from the start: these two were absolutely amazing and are welcome back anytime!

Yateley are a strong team and feature multiple county players, so we knew it would be a tough match, but after winning the toss we put them into bat and set about trying to stop them. Some excellent bowling produced wickets for Darcey, Lauren and Honor while Liv at WK was able to stump out another, but Yateley were relentless with their pressure and seemed to run on every ball. An innings which saw them hit 20 fours and 3 sixes ended up with them finished on 183 for 4. It would have been even higher if it hadn't been for the incredible, acrobatic fielding performance of Florence, who was diving in every direction to stop balls crossing the boundary rope. Total commitment in the field! A special shout also to Isabelle, who Yateley nominated as Best Bowler at the end of the game. Those U11s play with absolutely no fear.

Next, HWCC went into bat. It was tough because, just like their batting, Yateley's bowling was county standard and often our girls just had to hang in there. We unfortunately only made it to the eleventh over before all eight wickets had fallen, but the pick of the performances was from Liv who managed to score 25 runs off of just 16 balls including 6 fours. Our final score was 59 for 8.

A hard game for us and a realisation that the teams at the very top of the league are playing to a really high standard. But positives too: the team spirit and camaraderie is the best the coaches can ever remember - every girl contributes in every game. And after seeing the talent coming through from the U11s, the future really is bright.